mitochondria

n=7

a: Mitochondria ~

b: a battery

What:

"I had an opportunity to talk with a friend's son who was a graduate student and was working with a researcher at a North Carolina University working with diabetes. He said the mitochondria is like a battery. It needs to be discharged as well as charged, i.e. exercised. Remember the ni-cad batteries that needed to be discharged fully or they lost capacity to retain their full charge. That is a chemical analogy."

A mitochondria is like a tiny furnace contained in each cell in the body. Mitochondria generate energy inside each cell by burning food in the presence of oxygen. This is why cells that are fully oxygenated have a higher level of energy. But again, oxygen can be both friend and foe. This firing process ends up subjecting the mitochondria themselves to high levels of free radical damage. As we age, mitochondria become so damaged by these free radicals that they lose their ability to function efficiently.

What: "The Cell is like the city of Springfield because the city has lots of little parts that keep it going and the cell has lots of little organelles that keep it going.""The Mitochondria is like Springfield's Nuclear Power Plant because they both provide energy - the mitochondria for the cell and the power plant for the city."

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